There
are four main types of cadence; which are Authentic Cadence, Half Cadence, Deceptive
Cadence, and Plagal Cadence. These four division are based on their harmonic
progression. Two of them sound finished, whilst the other 2 sound unfinished. Both
of the finished cadences sound finished because they end on chord I. Unfinished
cadences sound unfinished because they don’t end on chord I. When you hear an
unfinished cadence at the end of a phrase it sounds like the music should not
stop there – it sounds like it should continue onto the next section.

The Authentic
Cadence
(also called Final Cadence) is a progression from dominant to tonic harmony. The
chords of this cadence are generally in a root position. An authentic cadence
is the most basic form of ''the end,'' composed of two chords, the V and I.

An
authentic cadence occurs whenever a phrase ends with V or vii° going to I (or i if minor). So an authentic
cadence in C Major starts with a G chord and resolves with a C chord. A seventh
may be added above the root with a progression from the fifth to the first in
major keys, or V to I in the minor keys. This cadence is
simple, fulfilling, and aesthetically pleasing. This is one of the strongest
cadence types that is available under common practice tonality.

The
authentic cadence may be perfect or imperfect, (Some theorists call a half
cadence an imperfect cadence.) perfect when the tonic chord is arranged with
its root in both outer voices, and imperfect when the uppermost voice sounds
factor 3 or 5 in the tonic chord. The authentic cadence when preceded by
subdominant harmony is called complete cadence. The effective use of the
authentic cadence is at the end of a period.

There
are two types of authentic cadences that are used in music:

Perfect
authentic cadence (PAC)

Imperfect
authentic cadence (IAC)

Perfect authentic cadence: In a PAC, the two
chords that make up the cadence are both in their root positions, meaning that
the note on the bottom of the stack is the root, the note the chord is named
after. The very strongest PAC occurs when the second chord, the I/i chord, has the root of the chord on
both the bottom and the top of the stack of notes; this makes for a very
high-impact sort of end to a song.

The
average G chord is made of G, B and D. If those notes appear in that order, G
will be the lowest note. However, in a perfect authentic cadence, the note in
the lowest position of the I chord is repeated in the highest position. In our
C Major composition, that last chord could look like this: CEGC. Altogether, our V-I
would be GBD- CEGC. That's a perfect authentic cadence. Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy”
ends with just that type of cadence.

Imperfect authentic cadence: Every other V-I
chord progression is called an imperfect authentic cadence (IAC), and it’s
basically anything that isn’t a perfect authentic cadence. A cadence ending in
the V-I pattern but with different notes in the root of either chord
and/or without the I chord capped by
the tonic note (the note the key is named after), makes an imperfect authentic
cadence.

For
example, the V/v chord could be in some inversion. In the I/i chord shown below, or there’s a melody note moving between the
chords. If we have V-I perfect authentic cadence is GBD- CEGC, an imperfect authentic cadence could be DGB- GCE. Both of these
have a G chord followed by a C chord, but the imperfect cadence messes with the
expected composition [the ordering of the notes] of those chords. The
difference between a PAC and an IAC is illustrated in diagram above.ALSO
READ > Choral Conducting Techniques

The Plagal Cadence (also called
Church Cadence, Ecclesiastical Cadence, and Amen Cadence) is a progression of
the subdominant chord to the tonic chord. This cadence is very common in
hymnals, offered as the “Amen” portion of the ending in a song. This also
brings closure but does not have the finality of the leading note rising to the
tonic. It is usually expressed as V-I-V, but it can also be expressed as I-IV-I. The progression is IV to I and often the melody stays on the tonic. It can be used as a major cadence, a minor
cadence, or a combination of both.

This
cadence is effective after the final cadence in ecclesiastical music.

The Half Cadence is a progression
from tonic or subdominant harmony to dominant harmony. This cadence ends on the
fifth and can be proceeded by any other chord. It can start on chord I, II
or IV. This causes the musical
composition to sound somewhat incomplete, which suspends the piece in the mind
of the listener. Variations of this cadence may raise the chording by a
half-step, creation semi-tonal motion within the bass, or offer parallel
fourths between the upper voices.

The
music clearly sounds like it should continue. Its effective use is at the end
of any phrase other than the last phrase of a period.

The Deceptive
Cadence
(or Interrupted Cadence, also called False Cadence and Avoided Cadence!) is a
progression from dominant harmony to some chord other than I, usually VI and
occasionally IV preferably in first
inversion.

This
cadence ends on an unexpected chord and the music literally does sound like it
has been “interrupted”, creating an irregular resolution to the composition. It
offers a suspended feeling to the listener, often repeating chord progressions
in such a way that a conclusion is expected, but never comes. It could be said
that a composer using this cadence will “sidestep” to a different key in order
to bring the composition to a conclusion. The most common chord progression you
will come across is from chord V to chord VI (V-VI).

The
music sounds like it is unfinished; it sounds like it has just paused and
should now continue onto a new section. Its effective use is at the end of a
phrase other than the last phrase of a period. It is effectively used also to
extend the normal length of a period.

We have described the main four types of cadence we have above, though there
are other cadence opportunities that can be used in music theory in addition to
the four common types. An inverted cadence will follow one of the four common
types, but invert the last chord of the composition. An upper leading-tone
cadence utilizes a trill throughout the key to place an emphasis on the whole
tone to draw out an authentic cadence conclusion.

The
first step in becoming comfortable with cadences is to start identifying them
in music that is very familiar to you. Find the pauses and stops in the music.
Do a harmonic analysis of the last few chords before each stop, and identify
what type of cadence it is. Then see if you can begin to recognize the type of
cadence just by listening to the music.

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Phamox music is a music blog brand that provides information about classical music, hymns, African art music, art musician and hymnal. The main purpose of creating this blog is to provide useful and comprehensive information that worthy to be used as reference across the globe.